May 5th is Tango-no-Sekku or Children’s Day in Japan. It is a national holiday on which parents hope their children – especially boys – stay safe and healthy. Families with boys display a samurai helmet replica or samurai doll inside of their home and fly koinobori (carp streamers) outside their houses. The samurai helmets serve as guardian gods to keep bad luck away from boys. It also protects the inside of the house.

On the other hand, koinobori is for outside the house. It is similar to a series of flags shaped like carp. Carp have been regarded as a lucky and strong fish since ancient times, so they are symbols of success in life in Japan. Parents fly koinobori in the sky with hopes of their children’s success.

On Children’s Day, people eat chimaki, which is a kind of Japanese rice cake, and kashiwamochi, a Japanese sweet, in hopes of their children growing up strong and healthy. Kashiwamochi is generally eaten in the Kanto area of Japan, which on the east side of the main island, Honshu. On the other hand, chimaki is generally eaten in the Kansai area, which on the western side of Honshu.

Chimaki is famous for not only being eaten on Children’s Day, but also in the famous and traditional Gion Festival of Kyoto. In this way, chimaki is connected with Kyoto culture.

More About Chimaki

Chimaki

On May 5th of each year, people in Kyoto usually eat chimaki, which is made from Japanese arrowroot rice cakes (kuzdumochi), sweetened and jellied bean paste (yokan), dango (balls of powdered grain, boiled and put in bean paste), and corn wrapped with a bamboo leaf and steamed.
Chimaki was introduced from China to Japan in the Nara Period (710~794) or Heian Period (794~1185). In those days, people made it as a preserved food, which was made from glutinous rice, wrapped in Japanese pampas grass, and simmered.

In addition, some people think that chimaki was named after wrapped food (maku) with Japanese pampas grass (chigaya). But today it is wrapped with a bamboo leaf, not chigaya. This new way was invented by Kawabata Doki, a master of rice cake stores in those days. The Emperor asked him to make something with kudzu from Yoshino which was one of the gifts dedicated to the Emperor by his citizens. Kudzu is very soft, so it cannot be wrapped with a fine leaf like chigaya, so he used a leaf of bamboo for yokan chimaki, and gave it as a present to the Emperor. This is the origin of doki chimaki. In this way, chimaki has become a Japanese confection, especially in Kyoto.

Kawabata Doki

Chimaki of Kawabata Doki

Over 500 years ago, Susumu Watanabe founded a rice cake store called, Watanabe Yashichiro. Doki was the name of his son-in-law, who helped him run the store. In those days, the Muromachi shogunate was getting weak and the finance of the Imperial Court was poor and they were short of food. Therefore, Susumu and Doki considered the situation and they presented a meal for the Emperor every day. Soon it became a custom to present rice cakes wrapped with salted bean paste called oasamono every morning and it continued until the Meiji Emperor had moved to Tokyo. That’s why chimaki of Kawabata Doki is one of the cakes most representative of Kyoto.

Now Kawabata Doki sells two kinds of doki chimaki: suisen chimaki and yokan chimaki. The former is cake made with kudzu from the Yoshino area of Nara Prefecture, while the latter is made with sweet bean jelly mixed with the kudzu from Yoshino. The refined sweetness, softness and scent of bamboo leaves are characteristic of these chimaki.

Kashiwamochi

Kashiwamochi

Kashiwamochi, or ‘Oak Leaf Rice Cake’, is another kind of Japanese cake eaten on Children’s Day in Japan. It is made by steaming rice powder, making it round and flat, and wrapping it with a piece of oak leaf. It also contains sweet bean paste, or an.

People in Kyoto prefer to make Kashiwamochi with misoan, made from shiromiso (sweeter than normal miso), rather than with koshian or tsubuan, which are normal bean pastes. The difference in bean pastes used is indicated by the right side and the wrong side of the oak leaf. In case of misoan, the mochi is wrapped with the oak leaf right side out. Koshi-an, however, is wrapped with the oak wrong side out.

People have eaten Kashiwamochi on Children’s Day since the Edo period. Originally, oak leaves were respected as a religious plate on which to put food for the gods. Also, oak leaves typically fall after budding in spring, when the new shoots pop up out of the ground. Therefore oak was regarded as a good luck tree to bring families prosperity of their descendants. It also became a celebratory leaf in samurai society. In this way, today Kashiwamochi has become another popular food associated with Children’s Day.

Where to Buy Chimaki and Kashiwamochi

You can buy chimaki and kashiwamochi at most of the Japanese cake stores from the middle of April to May 5th or even until the end of May. In addition, some supermarkets sell kashiwamochi around the Children’s day.

Shop Information

Hours: 9:30am to 5:30pm
Closed: Wednesday, August, from January to around February 3rd (for public people)

Access: Subway Karasuma Line Kitayama Station Exit1. 5minutes walk
Note: You can buy Chimaki at Kawabata Doki any time of the year except in January and August. However, advanced orders are required, especially in the weeks leading up to Children’s Day.

“Aburimochi” is a traditional kind of sweet found in Kyoto, and its connection to a particular shrine in Kyoto has ancient roots. In the year 1000 A.D., plague spread throughout the Kyoto area. In response to this, Imamiya Shrine was built, in 1001, as a place to worship, and pray that the plague would not decimate even more of the population. Despite this act of faith, the plague returned to wreak havoc again and test the people of the area. Thereafter, people started to put aburimochi in front of the shrine and prayed for good health as part of the Yasurai festival. This festival is a public event held in the spring, and during it people wish for good health as they eat aburimochi. There are people who wear formal dress, dress as demons, dance, play flutes, drums, and so on. This festival takes place on the second Sunday of April each year. Now, it has become a custom, after visiting the shrine, to eat aburimochi in order to prevent sickness.

The making of aburimochi is quite simple. The rice cake is cut into thumb-sized pieces, and dusted with soybean flour. Following this, the pieces are threaded one by one onto a skewer made of bamboo. The tip of the skewer is forked so that the rice cake pieces don’t slide off the skewer during toasting. After visitors have placed their order, the salesperson toasts the rice cakes, until they are a little burned, over a charcoal fire. Next, they are dipped into a sweet sauce made from white miso and presented to the customer. Finally, you can smell the fragrant aroma of freshly-toasted aburimochi, very delicious and not too sweet. You can take aburimochi home with you, of course, but eating it freshly-toasted is the nicest. If you take it home for later, it will likely be hard by the time you get back.

There are two stores selling aburimochi in front of Imamiya Shrine’s east gate; “Ichiwa” and “Kazariya”. Most visitors have a hard time deciding which store they would like to enter, and the staff of each vie for their custom most enthusiastically. Both shops have a long and interesting history, so I would like to introduce Ichiwa and Kazariya to you here.

Ichiwa

Ichiwa

This store has been open since 1002, and there is an old well located here from which water still springs even now, and it is this water that is used in the making of aburimochi. This well has been here since 1002, and has been used as the location for the filming of numerous period dramas. They also have a cooking oven in a recess inside the store, which uses a firewood fire for boiling glutinous rice in order to make the rice cakes. Beyond this, there is a small yard and a Japanese-style room with a tatami floor, a jar and a scroll hanging on the wall. You can stretch out your legs here, relax, and admire the hanging scroll and jar, which are changed according to the season. Why don’t you try to visit here every season to see the changes?

oven

cooking

well

yard

Open: 10:00~17:00Closed:Every Wednesday, and the 1st and 15th of each month
(When the 1st or 15th is a Wednesday, the store will be closed on the following day, Thursday)Address: Imamiya Shrine, east gate, south side, 69, Murasakino Imamiya-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fuTel: 075-492-6852

Kazariya

Kazariya

This store has been open since 1656. They also have a cooking oven, a small yard, a Japanese- style room and a hanging scroll. Many famous Japanese people have paid a visit to this store.

Cooking Oven

In the garden

Inside the garden

Dining Area

Open: 10:00~17:00Closed: Every Wednesday, and the 1st and 15th of each month
(When the 1st or 15th is a Wednesday, the store will be closed on the following day, Thursday)Address: Imamiya Shrine, east gate, south side, 96, Murasakino Imamiya-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fuTel: 075-491-9402

In both stores, you can buy aburimochi for 500 yen for one person. Also, you can get a take-out from 1500 yen for 3 persons. After you have visited Imamiya Shrine, you should try to eat aburimochi at Ichiwa or Kazariya at least once. If you don’t feel you have had enough to eat, why not try to eat a little more in both stores? The salespeople do say there seems to be some difference between the two. Enjoy your visit to Imamiya Shrine and the wonderful Kyoto traditional sweet of aburimochi.

Have you ever eaten dango? Dango is a Japanese traditional dessert which consists of sticky-sweet dumplings made from rice cake powder (mochiko). The dumplings are usually served on wooden skewers holding between three and five dango apiece. Dango have been eaten for a long time and there are many different varieties. I will introduce you to dango shops which are near temples and shrines of the northern, southern, eastern and western areas of Kyoto. Why don’t you try dango after looking around temples and shrines?

North: Kamo Mitarashi Chaya

There are many famous temples and shrines in the northern area, for example the Kamigamo and Shimogamo shrines. The sweets shop called Kamo Mitarashi Chaya, which is located near Shimogamo Shrine, has been open since 1922. This shop is very famous for being the birthplace of mitarashi dango, so many people come here from all over the country. The shop’s dango are strangely shaped. That is, one of the five pieces is a little separate, symbolizing the head, because according to legend, mitarashi dango express the shape of the human body.

The shop’s owner is a very friendly woman. She is very particular about the water and rice powder she uses, as well as the sauce, which is mildly sweetened with brown sugar. When you come to Kyoto, she says, please try her mitarashi dango. “Even if you don’t have a sweet tooth, we can serve you mitarashi dango using soy sauce.” You can buy and eat a one-person serving of 3 skewers of dango for 400 yen, and you can also get take-out from 525 yen for 5 skewers of dango.

South: Momoyama Mochi

Kyoto’s southern temples and shrines are great spots to go sightseeing in an uncrowded environment. Momoyama Mochi, which is located in front of Gokougu Shrine, has been open since about 100 years ago. An old couple in their eighties runs this shop and a third owner makes the dango. This shop’s specialty is mitarashi dango which is completely handmade and has an original sweet sauce. The owner grills dango over charcoal at the shop front, so you will smell a good aroma as you approach along the street. One of the five dumplings is a little separate just like Kamo Mitarashi Chaya’s.
This shop isn’t so big but the atmosphere is cozy and traditional in many ways and it is popular with the locals. Most people drop in here on their way back from Gokougu shine. The owners laughed and asked you to “Please visit our shop and try our mitarashi. But we can’t understand English, so please take an interpreter.” Don’t worry, you can manage on your own with a few gestures! You can buy and eat skewers of dango for 80 yen each; you can also get take-out.Access: About 5 minutes walk from Momoyamagoryomae Station (Kintetsu train line)Address: 191 Gokougumon-mae-cho, Fushimi-ku, KyotoTelephone: 075-601-3395Open: Wednesday through Sunday from 9:30 to 17:00Closed: Mondays and TuesdaysCapacity: about 4 people

West: Daimonjiya

Daimonjiya is located inside of Seiryo-ji Temple. The shop is famous for aburimochi with a sweet sauce made from white miso. If you haven’t had white miso, you should try this treat. Also very popular at Daimonjiya is warabimochi flavored with green tea (these unskewered dumplings are not made from rice flour but from bracken starch).
The atmosphere of this shop is very calm. And you can enjoy a Japanese-style tatami room or eat aburimochi on seating outside of the shop. In spring, you can also enjoy cherry blossoms while having aburimochi. You can buy and eat 12 aburimochi for 630 yen for one person, and you can also get take-out from 1260 yen for 2 persons. Seiryo-ji (which is a Zen Buddhist temple) is near Arashiyama, so why don’t you go to there after eating?

East: Umezono

Umezono opened in Kyoto’s Kawaramachi area in 1927, and afterwards the Kiyomizu branch opened near the famous Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The Kawaramachi shop is small, so it is a little hard to find. The shop’s specialty is mitarashi dango which isn’t round but a little square-shaped. The owner said that the reason why this shape is useful is to dip dango into sauce. Also shaved ice is popular in summer, and awazenzai in winter, too. If you can’t read Japanese, you don’t need to worry about it because there is an English menu. And foreigners usually like a “mitarashi set,” for example, mitarashi with warabimochi or shaved ice with green tea.
The owner is a young elegant woman. She said, ”Please taste some everyday Japanese desserts in Umezono.” You can buy and eat a one-person serving of 5 skewers of dango for 410 yen, and also get take-out from 750 yen for 10 skewers of dango.Access: About 5 minutes walk from Sanjo station (Keihan train line)Address: 4-234 Yamazaki-cho, Sanjo-kudaru, Kawaramachi, Nakagyo-ku, KyotoTelephone: 075-221-5017Open: 365 days a year, from 10:30 to 19:30Capacity: 30 people